To describe Prince Bandar bin Sultan as one of the most influential diplomats of his age is a gross understatement.

For the best part of 30 years, the former fighter pilot turned international fixer has plotted wars, cut multibillion-pound deals and made himself an indispensable player for four US presidential administrations.

Short, energetic and a familiar figure in every corridor of power that matters in Washington, the Prince has also extended his influence across the globe. At various times he has acted as emissary to Baroness Thatcher, Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev, Saddam Hussein and even the Chinese authorities. He regards Nelson Mandela as a close friend.

Unlike many of his pampered relatives in the Saudi Royal Family, the Prince, now 58, had a relatively modest up-bringing. His father, Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, may be Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, but his mother was a simple court servant and “concubine”.

Prince Bandar’s first taste of the outside world came courtesy of the RAF when he enrolled as a fighter pilot at the RAF College in Cranwell. It was here that he made some lifelong friends and important contacts. Two in particular stand out: Lord Powell, Lady Thatcher’s foreign policy adviser, and Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.

The experience made Prince Bandar a lifelong Anglophile. But it was America where the Prince set down his deepest roots. After training with the US Air Force and taking a degree at Johns Hopkins University, he was posted to the Saudi Embassy in Washington as air attaché, where he helped to lobby the US Congress to pass the sale of F15 fighter jets to Riyadh.

His reputation was made, and in 1983 he was appointed Saudi Ambassador to Washington under the Reagan Administration. “Bandar’s secret is that America is his natural habitat,” said a fellow diplomat. “He spoke their language. He liked them.”

It was these talents which Lady Thatcher needed in 1984 to help to clinch the Yamamah arms deal to Saudi Arabia, then the largest defence contract in military history.

During the first Gulf War, the Prince probably reached the peak of his powers when he helped to devise the strategy that led to US forces massing in Saudi Arabia to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.

The Prince stepped down from his post in Washington two years ago to return to Riyadh, where he has been appointed national security adviser to King Abdullah.

He still travels to America regularly, ostensibly to visit his mansion in Aspen, Colorado. But he is also known to have conducted secret talks with the Bush Administration on various Middle East issues.

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